LOS ANGELES (AFP) – California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is to host an international summit next week to discuss and develop strategies aimed at combating climate change, his office said in a statement Tuesday.
Schwarzenegger will be among five US governors due to attend the two-day session in Los Angeles on November 18 and 19.
Officials from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom have also been invited to the Governors’ Global Climate Summit, a statement said.
“Leaders from around the world are taking action to combat global warming, and this summit reflects our common desire to work together to solve a problem that affects all of us,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement.
“By bringing together a diverse spectrum of leaders and ideas, this summit is an opportunity to produce real solutions and generate new economic and environmental opportunities in California and across the globe.”
Schwarzenegger has vowed to make the environment a key issue of his second term and signed a historic bill in 2006 that saw California become the first in the nation to impose limits on global warming gases.
Under the plan, California will aim to slash the state’s carbon dioxide emissions by 25 percent by the year 2020, a figure that Schwarzenegger has said is equivalent to removing 6.5 million vehicles from the road.
